October 7, 2026
The session of the Parliamentary Education Committee witnessed intense discussions, verbal clashes, and shouting between MPs Bilal Al-Hashimi and Salim Al-Sayegh, against the backdrop of widespread parliamentary criticism of the performance of the Ministry of Education and the mechanism for dealing with the outstanding educational files.
In a statement to Lebanon Debate, MP Bilal Al-Hashimi downplayed the extent of what happened during the session, describing it as just a “misunderstanding” with a colleague. He stressed that the criticism directed at the ministry does not target the person of the Minister of Education, but rather stems from a national concern for the interests of students and the safety of the entire educational sector, calling for the necessity of correcting the course of several basic files.
Al-Hashimi pointed out that the most prominent of these outstanding files is the issue of about 3,500 teachers who left the education sector, the file of free students, in addition to the file of school integration, stressing the importance of making clear decisions regarding them and clarifying with the Minister the stages reached in dealing with these issues.
Al-Hashimi described the higher education file as “one of the most dangerous files on the table,” given its direct connection to the future of students and their years of university education, pointing out the suffering of students as a result of delaying the completion of equivalency transactions for several years, and their repeated demands to resubmit documents.
Al-Hashimi criticized the continuation of this bureaucracy despite the appointment of an original director general who was supposed to manage the files in a transparent manner that preserves the rights of citizens. He wondered about the double standards adopted within the administration, where transactions proceed and are completed easily, while others are exposed to complications and deliberate obstructions, as he put it.
Al-Hashimi concluded by stressing the necessity of addressing the structural and administrative imbalance in the higher education sector and not leaving the fate of students pending, calling for the adoption of clear and transparent standards that ensure accelerating the completion of transactions and removing unjustified burdens from the shoulders of students and their families.
